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“That’s right, and I’ really hush-hush,” Savanah re stories before, but he had always shared them with her This was the first time he had refused to discuss any part of it with her So far, he hadn’t given her soa journalist and naturally nosy, it had her curiosity raerous?”

“No“Don’t worry”

“Worry?” she asked with exaggerated nonchalance “Who, me?”

Gentry snorted softly “I’ht Good night, Dad”

Closing her eyes, Savanah leaned back in her chair and replayed everything that had happened that evening, from the time she’d stepped into the theater until she’d woken up in Rane’s house with no recollection of how she had gotten there

He was a world-class eous

He was a shape-shifter

She wondered what he was doing now Was he perhaps thinking of her? Had it been foolish of her to agree to see hiht so Did he know soht it was really dangerous for her to see Rane again, he would have said so and told her why

In herinto the wolf It had been a scary thing to see Scary and beautiful, she thought, the way his body had taken on a sort of shi, realigning the black wolf had stood in his place Did it hurt when he changed? Where did his clothing go? Questions, questions Would he answer theet ready for bed

Later, snuggled under the covers, her eyelids heavy, she stared out the open , her thoughts turning once again toward Rane Was he ho about her, or was he in his wolf for a sudden, inexplicable urge to go out into the night and look for him, she flopped over onto her sto on the brink of sleep, she thought she heard a wolf howl beneath her bedroom

Rane prowled the shadowed streets of the city, the lust for blood thruer was alorse when theHe had never known Vampires to be influenced by the cycles of the moon; it was a Supernatural law that applied only to Werewolves

Hoping to subdue his hunger, Rane turned his thoughts to Savanah Gentry She reain, he couldn’tnotion aside, he let his thoughts linger on Savanah The next teeks should be interesting indeed, heit was alirlfriend He laughed at the idea He hadn’t had a girlfriend since he’d had a crush on Wendy Sied when he turned thirteen Until then, he and his identical twin brother had been like any other boys on the brink of puberty They had gone to school, played a harmless prank now and then, switched places with each other from time to time to see if anyone could tell the difference But the world as they had known it had changed the night after he and Raphael turned thirteen For one thing, they didn’t wake up the next

Rane had learned later that his mother had tried to rouse hi the sleep of the Undead and there had been no waking either of the thirst he didn’t understand His parents hadn’t knohat to do His father, Vince, had taken Rane and his brother outside and told theh there was no way to be sure, since as far as anyone knew, no other Vampire had ever sired children

Vince Cordova’s explanation had been simple He had been a Vampire only a year or so when he had married Rane’s h of his humanity to sire Rane and his brother After that brief explanation, Vince had taken his sons hunting He hadwoman and taken a sht the scent, he had known it hat he had been hungering for, what he wanted Needed He and his brother had both fed from the woman The little they had taken had satisfied Rafe, but not Rane He had wanted more He had wanted it all He had ht, a secret he had kept to this day, a secret that gnawed at hied Va to school had been out of the question after that, so his parents had hired a tutor who had been willing to teach theht Later, after Rane and his brother reached adulthood, their father had brought theirhappy Vampire family,” Rane muttered, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice

Rane had left hoone back

He had kept up with his family’s whereabouts as best he could since then He knew that his brother, his parents, and his grandparents had all been involved in the recent war between the Vaone on forever if Mara and the head Werewolf, Clive, hadn’t come to their senses and realized that the war between the Supernatural creatures was a big ood many Vampires, Werewolves, and hunters had been killed before peace had been achieved

Rane had been surprised to learn that Rafe had fallen in love, married a mortal woman, and settled down in Oak Hollow, a town Rane had never heard of and couldn’t find on ain love with ht Savanah Gentry’s ie quickly to mind He had known many women in the course of his existence, some more intimately than others, but he had never let himself fall in love with any of them Every time he started to care too deeply, the h thehim, in vivid detail, that he was a monster

Chapter Five

William Gentry sat in the backyard, a blanket spread over his useless legs, a glass of strong whiskey cradled in his hands There were times, like nohen sleep eluded hiet

He drained the glass and then refilled it froet old hurts, old wounds, and usually it worked, but tonight not even whiskey could drive away the ghosts of the past